Jack's Day Off
by Backroads
Summary: What does our favorite CTU agent do when he isn't saving the world?
1. Jack Has Breakfast

_Disclaimer: I do not own 24. I also apologize to those who live in Idaho. Idaho is my other home, so I really do not mean any harm._

* * *

**9:00 AM**

Panic filled the air as the news of terror spread. Lives and hearts were destroyed in a mad whirl of horror and emotional daggers as yet another random terrorist group set out in a mad quest against innocent and not-so-innocent American citizens. Fortunately, this time they were attacking a small Idaho town in the middle of nowhere. And as America will never have any respect or even decent knowledge of Idaho, the Los Angelos CTU gave Jack Bauer the day off.

**9:09 AM**

The radio option of the alarm system went off. An annoying commercial. Jack hit the snooze.

**9:18 AM**

Jack really was not a Neil Diamond fan. He hit the snooze again.

**9:27 AM**

Irritating morning show people. Another pound on the snooze button.

**9:36 AM**

Amy Grant. Oh, how Jack loved Amy Grant's voice. But the song quickly ended.

And now they were playing an annoying commercial about medical products. "Med One Medical…"

Jack really hated public radio. Someday soon he would have to go for XM. He swore and hit the snooze button once more. He shoved away the covers, took a deep breath, and popped his back. Noisily.

He had a day off today. What was he supposed to do? The radio was going to come back on again.

He was hungry. Where there any eggs in the fridge? He didn't remember buying any recently. But if there were some eggs, they should still be good. How long did it take for eggs to go bad in the refrigerator? Scrambled eggs sure did sound good. When, exactly, was the last time he had eaten breakfast? He crawled out of bed. He always slept in his boxers and nothing else, and he hadn't the slightest idea where his robe was. Well, as long as nobody looked in the window. He didn't look that bad in his boxers.

Maybe he could have some toast with his eggs. Whole-wheat toast, with melted butter. The toast would contain fiber. Fiber was necessary for a happy colon.

Unfortunately, there were no eggs whatsoever. All that was in the fridge was a bottle of mustard, a jar of olives, and a foreign blood sample from two years ago. And something in Tupperware in the back… he didn't remember owning any Tupperware.

No eggs. Of all the miserable things, there were no eggs. He slammed the door, kicked the fridge, and spent the next three minutes hopping around the kitchen in pain, swearing at the top of his lungs.

And there, through the kitchen window, was Old Mrs. McIntire from next door, glaring at him.

He smiled sheepishly, waved, and quickly opened the cupboard. Gosh darn it, he was out of Pop-Tarts.

He slammed the cupboard door. It hit the box of Wheaties sitting in front of the empty Pop-Tart box and sent nutritious whole wheat flakes all over the floor.

Jack had to resort to his stash of disgusting protein bars. He ripped open a caramel-seaweed bar and went outside for the paper.

The paperboy, for some reason, was only now delivering the morning paper. As Jack stepped out onto the porch, a rolled-up paper flew from the neighbor kid's hand and landed in the flower pot above Jack's head. Soil splattered everywhere. The wisterias he had just planted were ruined!

"Sorry!" the annoying neighbor kid called as he sent another informative missile into a compost heap.

Jack considered chasing after the paperboy, but realized it would be little use. He knew the boy's mother, and sometimes she made rolls for Jack. They were very tasty rolls. He fished his paper from the flower pot and walked back inside, only to hear the sound of terra cotta shattering against the pavement. This would be the last time he shopped the Home Depot clearance.

Wheaties still covered the kitchen floor. He had absolutely no idea where the broom and dustpan were.

Jack sat down at the table, opened the paper, and took a bite of his protein bar. Caramel-seaweed was a particularly nasty flavor, and the chocolate coating didn't help. Oh, well. It was breakfast. Even if it did taste awful.

The front page was a local story. There was no mention of the Idaho terrorist attack at all. No wait, there was a one-paragraph article in the middle of Section A. He wondered how the Oneida CTU was handling things.

The funnies section was extremely entertaining that day. And, folded amongst the classifieds, was a whole sheet of coupons! Jack immediately grabbed the scissors.

Unfortunately, none of them applied to eggs. He really needed eggs. And milk. And actual food. He made a mental note to remember to go to the grocery store. He just hated going this early.

Well, he had better get dressed and get on with the day.

But when he got to his closet, he realized the horrible truth.

He was completely out of clean clothes. Uh-oh.


	2. Jack Does Laundry

**10:00**

It was horrible to behold. An empty closet, hangers dangling and bare like shiny ornaments of death and loss. No, wait, there was an old t-shirt he had bought as a joke in a Wyoming truck stop. Ten years ago. But it was old, ugly, and above all, tacky.

Jack's heart began to race. This was horrible. He had to have something to wear. He grabbed the t-shirt, then slammed the closet door shut. There had to be something in this house he could wear! He couldn't be expected to go around in boxers, could he? That was not decent! He would be arrested for sure, and there was no way a CTU badge could get him out of that fix.

He began pulling drawers out of the dresser. He had socks and underwear. He was good on the socks and underwear. Socks, underwear, an ancient package of Milky Way minis… "No," he murmured. "I need pants. I have to find pants!"

But there was nothing!

"No!" He leaped at the overflowing laundry basket and grabbed the jeans he had worn two days ago. Nothing exciting had happened that day. The jeans were still good. Maybe. He sniffed them. They would do. As long as he wasn't around a woman, they would do.

He grabbed the clothes and headed to the shower. Today he would use the Herbal Essence shampoo and the cucumber-melon body wash he had purchased from Bath & Body Works. He loved that stuff.

**10:08**

Jack ran some gel through his hair and turned on the blow dryer. Few people realized how much work it took to get hair as good-looking as his.

**10:17**

His hair looked perfect. No, not perfect. He had gone for the natural look, the look of a man who had just leaped from a thirty-story window and then ran after a terrorist. It was wild and sexy. Oh, yeah.

Well, it was a time to get a start on the day. Like the laundry situation. He really did not feel comfortable in old jeans and a truck stop t-shirt.

He exited the bathroom and stared at the pile of laundry. It was scary. He took a deep breath. If he let it sit there, it was only going to get worse. No, it wasn't. He was wearing the only clothes he had left. So that meant that if he didn't wash this laundry, he would have to wear it.

He shuddered, then knelt down in front of it. Okay, now how was this done? Somehow he had take all these clothes to the washing machine and… no, he was only supposed to take some of the clothes to the washing machine. What was it called? He clenched his teeth and tried to think.

Sorting! That was the word! He had the sort the clothes into different piles, and then he would take the different piles to the washing machine.

Okay, good. He was feeling better about this. He pulled a few items from the main pile.

No. There was more to it. There was a certain way the clothes had to be sorted. Because Teri had always yelled if the wrong shirt was in the wrong pile.

His heart pounded all over again. This was harder than it looked. How had Teri and Audrey and all those other women done it? He leaped to his feet and ran for the phone.

She answered after the first ring. "O'Brian."

Huh? "Chloe, I thought you weren't working today."

She hesitated. "Yeah, well, it's sort of a habit. Why are you calling me?"

He glanced at laundry pile. "Chloe…I need help."

Her tone changed. "What happened?"

He sighed. "Chloe, how do you sort laundry?"

The pause was longer this time. "You called me about laundry?"

"I don't really know how to do laundry." It almost sounded as if she were surprised.

"Where do your clean clothes come from?"

"Well, usually I'm busy so I don't really think about it. But now I have to do my laundry."

Chloe sighed and muttered something under her breath. "Okay, Jack, I want you to get a shirt or something."

He nodded, even though she couldn't see him. "Okay." He grabbed a shirt.

"Now I want you to look just beneath the collar. There should be a tag there, or maybe some print. If there isn't one there, it will be inside the shirt along the seam."

Jack quickly found the tag. "Found it."

Chloe's voice was now very slow. "Now somewhere on that tag it will probably say either 'Machine Wash Warm' or 'Machine Wash Cold'."

"Chloe, this one says 'Gentle Cycle'!"

"Then that is going to go in another pile. Some of them will say that. It's okay. Now look the color of the shirt. Would you call it a dark color or a light color?"

The shirt was blue. "Dark, I guess."

She sighed again. "Now here is how you are going to sort the laundry. You have dark colors, light colors, clothes that should be washed in cold water, clothes that should be washed in warm, and you probably have some whites."

"What about the ones that say 'Gentle Cycle'?"

"Dang it, Jack, those too. Now I want you to sort the clothes by both color and water temperature."

He felt a little better. That wasn't so hard. "That's it?"

"That's all for now. Now I'm going to let you sort your laundry now. Goodbye."

She was such a lifesaver. Jack, feeling somewhere more confident, resumed sorting his laundry. Dark clothes, light clothes, warm water, cold water. Two piles of dark, two piles of light, a pile of whites, and the gentle cycle clothes.

He understood, but it was still hard.

Then, finally, he was finished. He picked up a pile (the light-colored clothes to be washed in cold water) and headed to the laundry room. Now all he had to do was put the clothes into the washing machine and…

No. He caught himself. He had to add the soap first! Oh, yes. He was on top of this. He grabbed the box of tide and opened it.

It was just like the eggs and Pop Tarts.

He grabbed the phone again. He had no idea how to buy laundry detergent. "Chloe…"


	3. Jack Goes Shopping

**11:00 AM**

Jack was organizing his coupon collection when the horn blared outside. He leaped from the sofa, carefully grouped slips of savings barely staying in his hands as he shoved them into a plastic grocery bag. So much for organization. He knew he should have been organizing his coupons from the beginning! After all, it couldn't be that hard to take five minutes every now and then to keep things in order, especially when one believed in coupons as much as he did.

But, oh well. He rarely went shopping, so perhaps digging for the proper saving would be a good experience.

No, no it wouldn't. He felt very unprepared. But his life was often very unprepared.

The car horn sounded again, this time holding a certain note of fury. Chloe could sure cut through LA traffic fast. Jack grabbed his wallet, twisted close his bag of coupons, and headed outside.

A bright green VW Bug was parked outside his house—Jack wasn't terribly sure of the model of those new things. One of the convertible ones. Why the heck did Chloe own one? She pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head and snarled. "Took you long enough to get out here. I swear, you always want something but you can't be bothered to do it."

Oh, that Chloe. Jack flashed her a smile as he climbed into the passenger's seat. "I was going through my coupons." He held up the bag, which Chloe eyed with something akin to fear. "I'm always sure to cut out coupons."

She nodded, not impressed. "And yet you don't even know how to get to the grocery store?"

Jack shrugged. "Grocery stores are rarely a matter of importance."

Chloe sighed, shook her head, and threw the car into gear. "This was supposed to be my day off, too. I deserve a day off as much as you do, Jack."

"But I don't know what kind of laundry detergent I'm supposed to buy."

"And I told you over the phone that it doesn't really matter."

Jack glanced up at the sky. An overcast shadow was settling in. Perfect to fit the mood. "Chloe, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ruin your day. But it's just a quick trip to the store. I don't know how to do any of this homemaking stuff."

The faintest of smiles lit her face as she squeezed the steering wheel and turned a corner. "As I well know. Look, I'm sorry, too. I do want you to have clean clothes when you return to CTU."

"How come you always have nice clean clothes?"

She rolled her eyes. "Because I do my wash. Hey, do me a favor and turn on the radio."

Ah, yes. A little relaxing music. He did as he was told.

It was Neil Diamond.

He groaned, but Chloe seemed thrilled. "Awesome! I love this one! Turn it up!"

And that was when Jack learned that Chloe could not sing.

**11:08 AM**

Chloe swung the Beetle into the parking lot of a Safeway. The Neil Diamond stuff had passed, and how she was attempting the vocals of Norah Jones. Norah Jones was someone else Jack would never understand.

The trouble was that Chloe was a friend and Jack simply could not bring himself insulting her. Not when she would probably ditch him at the grocery store and take off.

"Damn it," he muttered as he surveyed the parking lot. "It's crowded."

"Then we shall park in the back and get a little exercise," Chloe replied gleefully.

Jack stared over the minivans and seagulls to the far edge of the parking lot. It seemed so far away. "But I just need to pop in there and buy a few things."

"And so does half the neighborhood. It's a morning. This is when all the housewives do the grocery shopping. And the single people like you."

Boy, but he needed to get married again. He didn't think he could do grocery shopping every week. "Why can't they just eat Spaghettios?"

"I'm parking back there, and you will walk."

He really did not want to get kicked out of the car. He sighed and slumped back into the seat as Chloe drove a mighty 3 mph past mothers with strollers and old people taking their sweet time. Finally, she parked the car and Jack got out.

There sure were a lot of seagulls on this edge of the lot. A couple dozen of the huge white birds picked at the ground and gave their weird call. It was like a bunch of squeaky toys.

"I love seagulls," Chloe said. "They're so pretty."

Five of them stared at Jack. It was very unnerving. "They're rodents with wings. I pity the state of Utah. This is their state bird, you know."

"At least they help clean up the garbage."

Sure enough, one was attacking what appeared to be a diaper. Disgusting. "Chloe, they're staring at me."

"Because you're weird. Come on, I have stuff I want to do."

The Safeway seemed miles away. Boy, this was going to be a workout.

The din of the grocery store increased with every step Jack and Chloe took. People talking, babies crying, employees getting yelled at, a guy over the loud speaker. It was terrible. By the time Jack entered the store itself, he was nearly deaf. Well, he needed laundry soap. And eggs. He could not forget about the eggs. Eggs would be good.

Now, just how did a grocery store work?  
Chloe coughed and gestured at the shopping carts. Oh, yes. Good. A place to put things. "Thanks."

She raised an eyebrow. "Hey, I'm not going to push yours. I'm doing my own shopping while I'm here."

He stared at the cart. Push it. Yes, that seemed reasonable enough. He grabbed the handle and immediately pulled away. It was wet and sticky all at the same time. And…

And there was gum now attached to his finger. He shook it away and grabbed for the antibacterial gel dispenser. Thank heaven they now kept those wonders of modern civilization around. Then he grabbed the ad from the bottom of the cart and wrapped it around the handle. Much better. He pulled the cart away.

A horrifying shriek rang out through the store as the car jerked painfully to the left.

"Busted wheel," Chloe observed. "Get another one."

Jack shook his head. "This one will work fine."

"No, it won't. Just get another one."

"Chloe, I'm a CTU agent. I don't just "get another one". I'm used to working with what I have."

She rolled her eyes once more. "All right, then."

He yanked the cart toward the main area. It screeched and pulled, but he was going to shop with that cart if it was the last thing he did.

Chloe flinched. "Jack, that sounds like a dying cat."

"Just shut up and tell me where the detergent is."

**11:22 AM**

He had never before known how easy it was to get lost in a grocery store. All those tall shelves proved to be nothing less than a labyrinth of terror. Add stupid people with carts, and one might as well just shoot himself. But before he had to suffer that, he finally figured out the code. All places ran by encryption.

And the Safeway had signs over each aisle announcing the products sold there.

So deceitfully simple. But he tried it, and sure enough he made it to the laundry detergent with ease. Yes, perfect. He just had to grab a box and…

His heart skipped a beat. Tide, Arm & Hammer, Gain, Sun, Oxy-Clean. Different names, colors, and logos on each individual box. What did they all mean?

All he had wanted was some laundry soap so he might have clean clothes. Was that so much to ask?

So many options.

He took a deep breath. This was going to be more difficult than he had planned.

He could not screw this up. He had to buy the right stuff.

**11:45 AM**

Jack happily placed a box of Tide (Mountain Fresh) and a bottle of generic fabric softener (Island Breeze) into his cart. He thought the combination of scents would be delightful. Besides, he thought he remembered seeing a coupon for that particular…

His bag of coupons. He had left it in Chloe's car.

And Chloe… he didn't know where she was. He had last seen her in the produce section.

Damn it.

Well, he would just have to hide his stuff in a safe place and go back for the coupons. He was pretty sure he remembered where she had parked the car. Near those creepy seagulls.

But where to hide the laundry stuff? The cart was too big and bulky. He pulled the detergent and fabric softener back out and looked up at the aisle codes.

Frozen foods. Hmm.

And it was just two aisles over. He checked to make sure no one was coming and bolted around the corner. Fortunately, the frozen food section was empty, at least for the time being. The big things of ice cream. That would hide them.

One more check to see if enemies were approaching.

Then he stuffed the detergent and fabric softener behind a large thing of cookie dough ice cream and slammed the door. There. No one would find those.

And now to take on the seagulls. But he couldn't look scared. It was dangerous to let an enemy see your fear. Or anyone else.

He sauntered back into the parking lot. So far no one was watching. He broke into a jog. Wow, Chloe had sure parked far away. But he could handle it. He could make it.

Cars moving around, cars parking, cars pulling in… he dodged every single one of them. He had to get those coupons. They were a must…

Now all of the seagulls were watching him. He froze. There were freaky. One squawked, flapped its wings, and took a few steps toward him.

Jack gulped.

Another bird approached.

Jack didn't have time. He dove for the car, grabbed the coupon bag, and took off back toward the Safeway.

Hopefully the seagulls weren't following him.


	4. Jack Has Lunch

**12:00 PM**

The automatic door closed deftly behind him as Jack slid into the Safeway, clutching the plastic bag of coupons protectively to his chest. Behind him, the flustered seagull shook itself and flew away, probably to poke at another helpless victim. Jack watched it go, glowering, though inside he felt the warm fuzzies of triumph over evil. That seagull had made chase, but so had Jack. And now Jack was safe inside the store.

Ooh, it was a good feeling.

Several young mothers stared at him. He smiled sheepishly at them, then continued into the main area of the store.

He first saw that they were setting out the free sample stations. Ooh. There was nothing more he loved than free samples. And he never got to properly eat when saving the world or running across huge parking lots from seagulls. He helped himself to a plastic cup of Cheerios from a smiling saleslady. Yum. Cheerios. You could eat Cheerios with milk, or just as a snack.

Speaking of which… he took a box of Cheerios. Now to retrieve his laundry stuff. Ah, yes. Behind the cookie dough ice cream in the frozen food aisle. Still crunching away at his Cheerios, he walked to that particular aisle of frozen food wonders, past the veggies and the pizzas to the ice cream.

He stopped.

They appeared to be college students, two young poor females with a cart full of off-brand food products.

He had picked off-brand fabric softener. He gasped. It was only too clear what they wanted.

His off-brand fabric softener that would make his clothes smell like a tropical island.

"Stop!" He yelled over the announcement of a sale on toaster pastries.

The girls froze as they carried out that huge thing of cookie dough ice cream. How could girls eat that much ice cream?

He marched over, wishing suddenly that he had his gun. That would show these punk college students not to mess with his laundry supplies. He could even see the laundry stuff now. Any moment they would notice it and they would take it. And then were would he be? He really had no desire to chase people all over the Safeway parking lot.

And then one of the girls rammed the shopping cart into this stomach.

He stumbled back, the wind knocked out of him.

"Pervert!" the other girl cried, stomping her very heavy shoe into his toes.

And then, before Jack even hit the ground, they were gone.

**12:06 PM**

It took him a few minutes to catch his breath again. Wow, but that had hurt. But he was Jack Bauer, CTU. Nothing could faze him. He climbed to his feet, not without excruciating pain, and grasped the door of the freezer.

Yes. Hope still remained. They had not touched his now-frozen things of mountain fresh detergent and island breeze fabric softener. But, good grief, they were cold. Not like his Cheerios.

His Cheerios? He looked around in horror. They were gone. Damn it! Those girls must have snatched them after he had attacked them.

And all he had wanted were some tasty Cheerios!

What a bad day this was becoming. At least he still had his coupons. He clutched them and the laundry supplies to his chest and headed for check-out.

Bleh. It was like the parking lot. People at every lane. He did not have the time to wait.

"Jack!" Chloe, with two bags of groceries, waved at him from the door. Well, she was ready to go.

A kid who probably should have been in school finished paying for a candy bar at one of those self-check out things. Hmm. Jack walked over and set his stuff down, then stared at the screen.

There were two things to push. One for English, one for Spanish. Jack knew both fluently. He began to sweat. Which one was he supposed to push?

**12:10 PM**

He finally decided to go with the English language option. Next, the crazy machine wanted him to scan his own groceries.

Oh, boy. How was he supposed to do that? He picked up the detergent and examined it for something, anything, that he could scan. And there it was. A barcode. Wow. Brilliant. A barcode.

He happily scanned it over the machine. It beeped and displayed the product and corresponding price on the screen. He was doing good. Then he placed it into the ready plastic bag.

And that was when it began.

"Unknown item in the bagging area", the machine demanded via a woman's cool voice. "Unknown item in the bagging area."

Jack jumped back from the machine, panicked. What was he supposed to do? He did not know, but he had to do something. He grabbed the detergent.

But it just kept happening. "Unknown item in the bagging area." Was this thing going to sic guards on him? Oh, to heck with it. He shoved the detergent into the bag and ran the detergent over the scanner.

The lady shut up and identified the price and his total. He slipped in a ten dollar bill and collected his change. Peacefully.

Then he grabbed his groceries and began to walk away.

"Unknown item in the bagging area."

Damn it!

He darted to Chloe and the door before anyone could do anything. He felt like a criminal.

"What was that all about?" Chloe asked as she sprinted after him out the door.

"Don't ask."

**12: 21 PM**

Chloe sped the car into high gear and set off out of the parking lot, the seagulls still watching them. "Sorry, Jack! I didn't think they would really attack you!"

Jack grunted and wiped the blood from his cheek. "I told you. They're scary."

"Yeah, well, I'm still posting this picture of you on the parking lot ground covered in seagulls up at work."

"I'll just tear it down."

"No, you won't. Now, where do you want to go for lunch?"

"Lunch?" Jack echoed. "What lunch?" He had just eaten a plastic thing of Cheerios.

"Lunch, Jack. It is now 12:22 PM, which is kind of the lunch hour. Normal people eat lunch around this time."

He took that in, impressed. Wow, what a concept. "The same time every day?"

"Yep. What are you hungry for?"

Jack thought about it. He had never been to lunch with anyone, at least not for a few years. "Can we go through the Wendy's drive-through?"

Chloe looked at him with disgust. "No, we are not going through the drive-through. We are two friends out on errands. You only get fast food from a drive-through when you are in a hurry. We can certainly stop somewhere for lunch."

"So… you want to go inside Wendy's?"

She rolled her eyes. "I don't want fast food. I want to go to a decent restaurant where I can sit down. Where do you like to eat out?"

Jack didn't eat out at decent restaurants. He was utterly bewildered. "I want to go through a drive-through and order a hamburger."

"No, Jack. We are not going to do that because I am the driver. Listen, here's what we're going to do. I know this place that is a salad buffet."

"Salad?"

"Yes, salad. It's healthy and you can make whatever you want from it. Please tell me that you don't mind salad."

Jack thought about it. He loved salad, actually. Salad was delicious. He liked the light, crisp lettuce that glistened with moisture and the cool vegetables and the creamy dressing…

Chloe smiled. "You're drooling. Let's go get a salad."

**12:39 PM**

Jack sprinkled a light shower of grated tofu over his salad. It was a delicious-looking salad, created with romaine lettuce, red-leafed lettuce, tomatoes, and grilled salmon. Next, he was going to add some almonds.

Mm, almonds.

He carried it back to the table where Chloe was already sipping at her Diet Coke. Jack had also ordered a Diet Coke. The other kind was not healthy when one was needing to outrun terrorists.

"That's a nice looking salad you have there," Chloe complimented.

"Thank-you. I just wish they had a nice raspberry vinaigrette here. That would perfect it."

He didn't understand why Chloe stared at him. "Good for you, Jack. Y'know, they do have pizza here as well."

"They do?" He liked pizza almost as much as he liked salad. He leapt up from his chair and ran to the buffet. Sure enough, there were little slices of pizza covered in veggies. Yum. He took one and brought it back to the table.

"Good," Chloe said. "You eat pizza. You were beginning to scare me."

"How so?"

"Nothing."

They ate in silence.

Then Jack asked Chloe a question that had been bothering him for a long time. "Chloe, can I ask you a question?"

(That was not the question that had been bothering him for a long time).

"Sure, Jack." She took another bite of her salad.

"After your divorce, how come you kept your married name?"

"O'Brian isn't my married name."

Jack frowned. "It's not?"

"I never changed it. O'Brian is my maiden name."

"But Morris' last name is O'Brian…"

"Coincidence."

"You just happen to have the same last name?"

"Yep."

That was pretty cool. He returned to eating his salad.

**12:50 PM**

Jack was getting up for his fourth helping of salad when it happened. He was deciding if he wanted to get romaine or the spring mix, and the waitress dropped her tray of plates.

Jack instantly set down his plate and dashed across the restaurant floor. He hadn't heard the bullet, but there could have been a silencer. Or it was a new kind of weapon. Maybe the waitress had been stunned.

"No one panic!" he shouted. "No one panic!"

Chloe moaned and covered her face with her hands.

She was scared. Jack could understand that. He would take over here. That was his job. He scanned the area for the perpetrator. The nice elderly couple on the side. The group of nurses. The other waitresses taking a break.

None of them fit the profile. But they could be moles. Clearly this restaurant was a set-up.

"It's okay!" the waitress called. "I just slipped."

Chloe dragged Jack back into his seat. "Don't embarrass me like that again!"

He glared at her. "That waitress was faking. She's up to something."

"And you're an idiot. I bet you didn't even use your coupons today."

"Of course I…" He slapped his forehead. He had not used his coupon for the detergent.

And he had forgotten the eggs.


End file.
